Prostitute turned-priestess at Shiva temple in Ujjain city red light area kicks up a row

Residents of the adjoining locality who took charge of the Shiva temple stage a demonstration in Ujjain's red Iight area.A passerby wouldn't have spared it a second glance. At first sight, the small whitewashed temple, situated under a peepul tree, was no different from the 500 temples that dot Madhya Pradesh's westerly district of Ujjain. The woman in question too was one who, in a city street, would have attracted neither notice nor comment.Together, however, the temple and the woman formed an explosive combination that sent waves of indignation across the country. But the short, dark woman, in black blouse and shocking pink sari, her oily hair neatly parted, was by no means ordinary - rather, a woman who had done the unheard of. She was Munni Bai, a prostitute turned-priestess at the Shiva temple in Pinjarbari, the red light area of Ujjain city. This was last month before residents of the locality rudely told her to leave the temple. Said Munni Bai sorrowfully: "For eight years I looked after the temple. Can anyone point to a single instance when I did not do my job? No. Why then do they now want me to leave? I have given up my old ways. I've lived a decent life. Was that my mistake?" Munni Bai rings the bell in the temple which she was forced to leave The bone of contention, the Shiva temple, believed to be 5,000 years old, faces, across a narrow street, ramshackle and dingy tenements which house about a 100 prostitutes and 25 dancing girls. In the evening, the sound of singing with harmonium and tabla accompaniment, wafts down to the streets from the first floor of the buildings where the dancing girls live.Below, their faces heavily made up, women line up at their doorsteps, talking lazily to one another, and shouting to the men who pass their way. Their profession is age-old, their manner of deportment rude. Listening to them it becomes easier to appreciate the tremendous metamorphosis that the well-mannered Munni Bai must have undergone. Transition: A helpless Munni Bai was brought to Ujjain 12 years ago by an aunt when her husband died a year after her marriage. She was coerced into prostitution but four years later, when the priest of the nearby Shiva temple quit his post, she moved in to take his place. Explained Munni Bai, squatting on the floor of the single room that is now her home: '"I had been wanting all along, to get out of this life of sin. This was an opportunity I knew I should not miss."Pnoro rearure A teenaged dancing girl entertains a bare SO yards from the templeBut the transition was far from easy. After giving up prostitution her income was severely limited. She had sublet three rooms nearby, which brought her some money. There were also her children to look after, a son aged seven and a daughter aged five. She received some assistance from their father, whom she refuses to name and to whom she is not married. Running the temple was not an expensive venture but it proved difficult for a woman with few means. Once a year she would collect a chanda from the prostitutes of the area for the running expenses.Residents of the adjoining locality of Golamandi, who made Munni Bai leave, see nothing wrong in the step they have taken. Says Gopal Das Natani, secretary of the 300 - member Navyuvak Janseva Samiti, the society they formed to press their demand: "As it is, the reputation of the area is terrible. And with Munni Bai in charge on top of that, hardly anyone wanted to visit the temple."The contradiction between Hindu teachings, which advocate forgiveness, and the actions of the Samiti had apparently escaped the attention of Natani and his enthusiastic supporters. The Samiti members are also demanding that the red light area be shifted. They have issued an ultimatum to the district collector, saying that they are tired of the drunken brawls, the unsavoury characters, and the fact that business in nearby shops being hit.Munni Bai, with her two children, lights a lamp for possibly the last timeHypocrisy:Asks Chotu Guru, the Brahmin priest, who works as a ward boy in the civil hospital and who was appointed by the Samiti as replacement priest: "Why is there such a commotion? Whoever said that prostitutes or Harijans or sweepers cannot enter the temple?" But Chotu Guru does not wonder how he is in any way more qualified to do the job than Munni Bai was.The Samiti members also insist that the room on the temple premises in which Munni Bai lived was used by her for trafficking in sex, a charge Munni Bai angrily denies: "They wanted me to get girls to my room. When I refused, this is what I had to undergo." Adds a haggard looking prostitute, laughing nastily: "Don't you believe these men of religion. There are those among them who would come to us at night."Samiti members claim that she moved out because of social pressure. But according to Munni Bai, it was more than that. First, Samiti members threatened her and later she was called to the nearby police station where she was asked to leave. "I am a single woman with two children and I was scared," she says. A young lawyer, Virendra Kothari, tried to persuade her to file a private complaint, but, scared of the police, she refused to do so.The temple as viewed from the doorway of a prostitute's homeWhen the controversy erupted District Collector Nanhey Singh and his administration were under the impression that the temple was a privately owned one. Caught between local opinion and press articles supporting Munni Bai, Singh was in a fix. But on going through the records it was discovered that the temple was on the list of government-managed temples.Said Singh with relief: "Since Munni Bai was not a government appointed priestess, she was an illegal occupant all these years. And so is Chotu Guru." To set the controversy at rest, Singh intends to appoint an outsider as the next priest. A depressed Munni Bai said: "Men don't think twice about ruining a woman's life. But who is to tell them that to help the fallen is also their responsibility?"- by Sreekant Khandekar Published By: AtMigration Published On: Nov 26, 2013 12:19 IST--- ENDS ---

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Prostitute turned-priestess at Shiva temple in Ujjain city red light area kicks up a row

A helpless Munni Bai was brought to Ujjain 12 years ago by an aunt when her husband died a year after her marriage.

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